What Indian Cricketers Must Understand
By Aamir A. Salaria
St. Peters, Missouri
The Indian cricket team visiting Australia was faced with a serious dilemma last week. Their decision to suspend the Australian tour until they got a positive outcome to their appeal before the ICC could well have backfired on them. No doubt, the two umpires made quite a few mistakes in the last test match which the Indians lost by 122 runs and unfortunately, almost all of those wrong decisions went against the touring team. However, the Indian team must understand that in the so-called noble game of cricket "An umpire is an umpire" and it is incumbent upon all cricketers, no matter what level of cricket they are playing, to respect the decisions of the umpires, come what may.
Historically speaking, Australians are hard to be defeated on their own turf because they are trained hard right from the grassroots level and have got the best cricket infra-structure in the whole world with fair and ample opportunities for all cricketers to shine and show their real cricket traits and skills, at all levels of cricket. Although the current Indian team is one of the best which has toured Australia since last two decades or so, still it's very hard for them to beat Ponting and party in their own backyard. The current saga of a few bad umpiring decisions in the last test match and a three match subsequent ban on their ace off spin bowler accused of a racial slur against the only non-Caucasian Australian player notwithstanding, India must understand that by letter and spirit of the game of cricket, they can't force the ICC to do things as they deem fit.
For sure, Indian Cricket Board is one of the richest entities not only in the whole world of cricket but also in a country where the average per capita income of an ordinary citizen is less than US$ five hundred per annum. Even the ICC knows very well and realizes the powerful influence of the Indian cricket board coupled with its devastating commercial and economic strength in the contemporary world of cricket today. Nevertheless, its high time and the right time for the Indians to understand that no matter what, they are for sure, not bigger than the game of cricket or for that matter, the ICC.
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